I explore three types of inspiration for H.C. Andersen: in 1819, the 14 year old pauper catapults his physical self from Odense to Copenhagen via an early desire for personal fame, described by himself as “an utterly inexplicable drive;” secondly, Andersen transcends an often perplexing, wounding reality and his asexuality through his creativity and fairy tales; finally, he achieves the stimulus of travel via grants and avoidance of real estate commitments: he remains a renter of rooms his entire life while frequently inserting himself into the estates of the Danish nobility, reciprocating with entertainment: his readings and paper-cuts.